New Trouble At Reactor 4

A diplomat from Japan has sent a tweet that was picked up by ENENews stating that the ground beneath the Fukushima Daiichi Reactor 4, has been sinking
unevenly up to 30" (80 cm) and that he fears that the structure would not take another possible magnitude 6 earthquake. There was also an interview
stating the same thing linked below, from Mitsuhei Murata former ambassador to Switzerland.

Mitsuhei Murata, Former Japanese Ambassador to Switzerland: Due to its ground has been sinking, Unit 4 is now endangered in collapse. [...] According
to secretary of former Prime Minister Kan, the ground level of the building has been sinking 80 cm [31.5 inches] unevenly. Because the ground itself
has the problem, whether the building can resist a quake bigger than M6 still remains a question

I did a search and can so far only confirm the report through the ENEnews source. If true though this could be or check that will be a really bad
situation, for the people of Japan as well as the rest of us world wide.

Below as well you will find a quick sound bite of the same politician stating an opinion on why the media silence about reactor 4. The take is the U.S
has made news put a hush on things due to the fact that there are 31 similar reactors in the United States as reactor 4.

Mitsuhei Murata, Former Japanese Ambassador to Switzerland: In the US there are 31 [sic] units the same type of that of Fukushima nuclear plant. So,
if the accident be spread too far that really embarrasses the US. So that is why the crisis of Unit 4 has been toned down recently. The USA is
actually the main reason.

If the ground sinking can be confirmed by other sources I would say they once again have an escalating situation on there hands given the amount of
seismic activity, and the general overall intricacies of the situation already this doesn't seem in my mind like it can play out very good.

This is definitely not good. I'm still trying to understand why Japan would build nuclear reactors on the Pacific ring of fire.. Earthquake/Tsunami
prone areas.. This is not only Dangerous to Japan but to the rest of the world.

I agree with you entirely seems like an absolute lack of forethought was involved in the placement and design of the plants in question, the elevated
fuel rod storage pools I'm sure they are also looking at as a failure to take into account contingency plans for such a disaster unfolding.

Couple this with past reports that the fuel rods had breached containment, and were working their way to the water table. And this most recent news
really has me thinking about whats really going on underneath the whole Fukushima compound right now. Until confirmed by other sources we can still
only speculate but in my opinion there isn't too much good that can come of this if verified.

One thing we can blame is, the people who equate Fukishima with Chernobyl. For one, Chernobyl was buried by a group of brave volunteers, who knew
they would die quickly, under a mass of concrete. Fukyshima is still an active nightmare, with no end in sight. Tepco, with compliance of the
Japanese government, has been attempting to keep fuel rods cooled by circulating tons of our oceans water, on a daily basis, to keep a status quo,.
But, entropy is winning this deadly game.

Of course, the nuclear industry is calling the shots on a world wide basis. Areva and Hilary Clinton were the first powers to meet within days of the
nuclear disaster. The stranglehold was set in place from the get-go.

Anyone who has been following what has been happening in Fukushima, can see with their own eyes, via web cams, and leaked data, that R-4 has been in a
slo-mo degradation. Arnie Gundersen and Fairewinds, have called the reality of what has been going on, from the first week. The absolute chaos, and
no real solutions are the driving force of keeping reality under wraps.

It's appalling that the truth is still being shoved under the rug. Unfortunately, the rug it's being shoved under is the size of planet Earth. The
ramifications of Fukushima are directly proportionate to the greed of man.

I'm not sure what he may be talking about as the Unit 4 building is still the scene of a lot of activity. I have a couple photo runs of recent news
from Fuku that might add some to the discussion anyway..

and more importantly, there has been considerable work done to fortify and reinforce the foundation of Unit 4,...so is it a matter of sinking in the
last few weeks, since completion of the foundation support work or is this from before that was done? Here is the site update for Fuku in September
and photographs of the foundation work.

The whole place is still a nightmare and very much ongoing...I'm just unclear on the current status. The link seems to suggest it was an August
story?

I'll just leave the US angle alone... It strikes me as humor, not a serious suggestion. There really ARE things on this planet that happen, are bad
and are NOT in any way the fault of the United States. Really.

Dang it Rabbit I didn't even see the date stamp for the original sound bite, just had it come up in the news I subscribe to linked to ENEnews should
have really taken the time to scan the article for relevant info before posting.

You provide info on the foundation upgrades and was that in correlation to the ground easing or just strengthening the obvious massive damage from the
initial EQ and following explosion, release of steam, what have you.

There really ARE things on this planet that happen, are bad and are NOT in any way the fault of the United States. Really.

Well that IS possible, but I am not sure that I believe you. Unfortunately however Fukushima and the whole fiasco is NOT one of them. The blame for
much for this lies fairly and squarely on the US Government and US companies. The reactor design was bad, the pre-planning and reporting was
inadequate and much of this was driven by US backed or based organisations. Japan also has a very great blame in this as well but you are not going to
let the US wriggle out of the blame for this one in my book anyway.

and more importantly, there has been considerable work done to fortify and reinforce the foundation of Unit 4,...so is it a matter of sinking
in the last few weeks, since completion of the foundation support work or is this from before that was done? Here is the site update for Fuku in
September and photographs of the foundation work.

I am curious, if this is the case, as to why all this should come out today?

They need to disassemble the reactor and dispose of the thing. What's so hard about that. Maybe they should call in some real construction workers
to take care of the thing instead of overeducated idiots.

And sadly it could be also the Bane of all humanity and we will never know cause I have this sneaking suspicion that they won't tell us until it's
too late anyhow. Pretty sad that we collectively in this world are constantly under threat from whats going on at Fukushima yet we hear nothing lately
without looking, about whats taking place there. And how the situation is still fully out of control.

The sooner we get away from nuclear energy and establish something new, can only come too soon

This is definitely not good. I'm still trying to understand why Japan would build nuclear reactors on the Pacific ring of fire.. Earthquake/Tsunami
prone areas.. This is not only Dangerous to Japan but to the rest of the world.

Someone with a knowledge of the fault lines and other geological knowledge should start a thread that shows the dumbest places they put nuclear power
plants in the USA. Why do we keep putting these kind of things in risky areas. I think it has to do with Pork Barrel tactics myself. Disregard
logic and caution to save a few bucks. Make it seem like a great boost to the local economy to take risky actions.

I'm starting to have my doubts about ENEnews. For a while, they had me hooked on eye candy. Now, it seems like every week they have been coming out
with some overhyped story that makes you think a total global meltdown is going to happen tomorrow. As bad as the situation was/is, they appear to be
borderline fear-mongering.

This content community relies on user-generated content from our member contributors. The opinions of our members are not those of site ownership who maintains strict editorial agnosticism and simply provides a collaborative venue for free expression.